The first major Bitcoin options expiry of the second half of 2026 is taking place today, but its market impact may be limited.
Roughly 31,000 Bitcoin options contracts are set to expire on Friday, July 3, representing a notional value of about $1.9 billion. Compared to last week’s large end-of-quarter expiry, today’s event is significantly smaller, making major spot market disruption less likely.
Crypto markets have remained mostly range-bound this week, though sentiment improved on Friday. Total market capitalization has increased by nearly $70 billion since Monday as selling pressure from last month’s downturn has eased.
Bitcoin Options Positioning
This week’s Bitcoin options expiry carries a put/call ratio of 0.7, indicating a stronger bias toward call options over puts. The max pain level sits near $61,000, close to Bitcoin’s current trading range, meaning a sizable number of contracts could expire in profit.
According to data from Deribit, open interest remains highest at the $80,000 strike price, where around $1.1 billion in contracts are concentrated. Meanwhile, bearish positions at the $60,000 strike still account for roughly $900 million.
Data from Coinglass shows total Bitcoin options open interest across exchanges has dropped to a 16-month low of $26 billion following last week’s larger expiry.
Derivatives analytics platform Greeks.live noted that short-term downside protection continues to dominate Bitcoin options pricing. This suggests traders remain focused on near-term risk management rather than significantly changing long-term market expectations.
Ethereum Options Also Expiring
Alongside Bitcoin, around 134,000 Ethereum options contracts are also expiring today, with a combined notional value of approximately $228 million.
Ethereum’s max pain level is around $1,650, while its put/call ratio stands at 1.3, indicating slightly more bearish positioning compared to Bitcoin.
ETH options open interest across all exchanges remains subdued at around $3.6 billion, its lowest level since January 2023.
Combined, today’s crypto options expiry represents nearly $2 billion in total notional value.
Market Outlook
Despite cautious positioning in derivatives markets, spot markets are showing signs of strength heading into the weekend.
Total crypto market capitalization has climbed to roughly $2.2 trillion, with most major assets trading in positive territory.
Bitcoin briefly touched an intraday high of $62,000 on Thursday following weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data, before easing back toward $61,500 during Friday’s Asian session.
Ethereum outperformed slightly, reclaiming the $1,700 level with a 6% daily gain and maintaining most of those gains.
However, with a long holiday weekend underway in the United States, trading volumes may remain relatively quiet, which could limit major market moves in the short term.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
